Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to the electrochemical field, and more particularly to electrochemical methods implementing bioelectrochemical devices, i.e. electrochemical devices, at least one of the electrodes of which makes contact with microorganisms.
Description of Related Art
Bioelectrochemical devices are recent. The study of biological anodes in the context of bio batteries started in the noughties in experimental devices in which the cathode was often abiotic. Sometimes, air cathodes that could optionally be biological were however used.
Bioelectrochemical devices have been subject to an increasing amount of attention over the last few years with a view to studying how to take advantage of and bioconvert organic material, which is in particular obtained from organic waste, in microbial electrolyzers. These bioelectrochemical devices require a biological anode (also called a bioanode) to be coupled to a biological cathode (also called a biocathode) and require a good kinetic coordination of the biological activities of the anode and cathode. Often, these activities are not well synchronized. Thus, the activity of one of the bioelectrodes in general takes precedence and may cause, in the circuit, potentials or currents that are detrimental to the correct operation of the other bioelectrode.
To the present day, biocathodes for electrosynthesis have practically never been studied in a system also including a bioanode. However, in future industrial waste biorefining applications, the use of both a bioanode and a biocathode will be necessary.